Such as by myself in reading the latest Maureen Dowd gossip passing as lively political talk on the Hillary texting meme. My IQ declined by 3 points reading that column.
the Dowdification of American political journalism
Maybe he was a good restaurant critic -- although there's considerable debate on that point* -- but on politics, Bruni was awful. It's hard to know what the Times was.
I basically agree with Melissa about the most recent Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin, which is almost as devoid of content as the last one. If you were.
I'm not going to say that this is the most vapid column MoDo has ever written -- the competition is way too steep. But it's always worth remembering that our most prominent newpaper thinks it's worth spending oodles of money to receive utterly incoherent non-thoughts...
Christ, Givhan is awful. (See also the point made in limerick form.) ...I had forgotten about this one. [via]
It used to be that Gail Collins would feign reluctance about having been forced by events to author her 75th consecutive column about some trivial political sex scandal or another..
Apparently, her stance on the ethics of plagiarism has changed considerably over the decades. And, of course, her plagiarism is much worse, since nobody (except perhaps some PUMAs and right-wing bloggers) actually expects contemporary politicians to always write their own stuff.
Even for Maureen Dowd, repeating idiotic right-wing rube-running about how the politicians sometimes...use a TelePrompter is lame beyond all reason. Even more shocking, however, L, G & M has learned.
Edroso on Paglia:I see Salon is still publishing Camille Paglia. Why, I wonder? It can't be respect for her prose, which reads like yammerings that a cranked-up MFA candidate might.
Adam discusses Maureen Dowd's lunacy so that -- this time at least -- I don't have to.
In re: MoDo, what Chait and Yglesias and Benen said. In criticizing Dowd for focusing almost entirely on inane personal trivia larded with her bizarre gender obsessions, I might have.
I thought I was aware of most of the major pillars of Clinton-era foolishness, but I had no idea that there had been thigh-rubbing about Clinton having a hot tub.